A Drop of Memories
by Los Malaventurados no Lloran
Summary: A photograph, flown by the winter wind, made Haruka remembers all things about Rin. So, he decided to come to the sea, to swim, and to deliver the unrequited message pent up in his heart... Sharkbait, character death inside.


***well okay. This is actually a translation of my previous work, "Setetes Kenangan", which was in Indonesian. Not a literal translation tho, I modify some part of this story to make it a bit longer than the original work. As usual... Free! belongs to KyoAni (and High Speed belongs to Kouji Ouji lol), Shizuku belongs to Asaki, but this story is mine. Enjoy it, and please leave some reviews (and please bear in mind that I'm not a native speaker and this fic is unbetaed, so if you found grammatical errors please don't sweat it u_u;;) ^^***

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**Iwatobi, April 2013.**

_...although the meaning of happiness and the meaning of being drenched_  
_left, embracing wind… I'll keep thinking_  
_"I'm glad I've met you at some point…"_

The temperature on the suburb the raven has spent his entire live in is as cold as usual, seems like spring took its sweet time to arrive there and dethrone the almighty winter. Winter had done many things to the suburb, mainly freezing the water in the nearby beach to a bone-numbing single-digit degree.

Haruka hated that fact, despite having to endure it every year. This year, he despised it even more.

Every winter, he would wish to come back and swim to the nearby beach, and let the ripples of water hugging him, begging him not to come back to the land. He missed the scent of the sea, the natural sodium he tasted as his body roaming free in the water, and there's another thing that bothers him every winter (now that he couldn't possibly swim there) since the past four years.

_He missed the warmth of the sea._

_It reminds him to a long-gone friend, foe, and rival, soothing him to no end._

That friend of him which currently undergone swimming training in Australia, "the land of Kiwi", as Nagisa jokingly said (he smiled at that comment, but no one noticed aside from Makoto. Not that he wanted anyone to notice, though). That friend of him with sharp, shark-like teeth, and a personality which resembled a tamed shark. A guy which, on a point, swam beside him, trying to reach Olympic as they race and beat another teams in countless competition (oh hey, in this regard, Nagisa and Makoto counts too. But is it illegal to have a certain bias and affection to a certain group member? He doesn't think so). Even until today, that smell of chlorine and synthetic water purifier still lingers in his memory, that memories stuck in his mind as the last tournament they won together was held in a pool that's just got its maintenance share after being unmaintained for God-knows-how-long. Oh, the memories of competition and youth.

That friend of him left for Australia since he was beaten by him in a 50-meter swimming race exactly four years ago. That day, Matsuoka Rin lost his smile and joy, and left without any trace. The next thing Haruka knows is that Rin, his red-haired swimming friend, his "shark" was no longer swimming by his side. He left without any news, leaving sorrow to Haruka's side.

That sorrow overwhelms him, which is not used to feel any kind of emotion. To resort, he stopped swimming competitively. Not many comrades accepted his decision, but the beach is always there for him, embracing him with tight ripples of water. That kind of soothing mood is just the exact soothing mood Rin created when they swam together.

Except that, it wasn't Rin who swam on his side. There's no one.

Sometimes Makoto would swam beside him, but it just feel hollow. Not that he hated Makoto, of course. He still treats Makoto as his precious friend (since Makoto is one of a few guys who supported his decision to stop swimming competitively), but he just doesn't feel that chemistry. When Makoto swam beside him, it's just as if he swam alone. Not Makoto soothed him, it's only water and Rin that can do it.

Since he currently couldn't swim in the beach, he fiddled in his bathtub to fill his unending obsession to water. He knows that it doesn't feel the same, yet he continued to do so because it's the only thing that would keep him sane. After a few hours, he would left the bathtub, cook some mackerel, and drifts to dreamland. This winter routine is exactly what he's doing now.

After finishing his dinner, Haruka closed the doors and windows, and enters his room. A photograph lied in the floor, seems like the fierce wind brought it from its original place. Haruka opens the photo and give it a glance before turning it back to its album (or frame, or whatever place it came from).

The photograph was taken five years ago at their last swimming competition as a group. They won it with ease. Coach Sasabe was setting the camera and hurriedly ran towards them, but he fell to the arms of Makoto and Nagisa (he still smiled, anyway). Haruka is still his emotionless self, but his eyes shone a bright shade of blue. Rin was beside him, smiled with a stupid grin and held Haruka close to his arms.

Just like that, Haruka's defence towards his own emotion ends. He cried. The next thing he knew is that he changed his clothes and wore a swimming clothes underneath, as if an unknown force made him do all this. He hastily opened the door and ran towards the beach. A glistening crystal started to form on his blue eyes, but he just can't cry. On the way to the beach, he saw the bulldozer starts demolishing Iwatobi swimming club, the club that held all his memories with Rin. He couldn't help it, the crystal started to flow, but no sound was ever made. He cried in silence.

After a moment, he realized what kind of unknown force made him run like this. It's all because of Rin. The apologies, the wishes for him to come back, the stories he wanted to share to the red-haired guy after he left, they're all being pent up in the last four years. Now that Rin is no longer there, he could only pass it to the water. The sea is embracing, for all he know, so he hopes that it will help him somehow to pass all the message to Rin. It may sound illogical, but it's the only thing that he knows will work. Or so he hopes.

It was fifty minutes past ten when he arrived to the beach. The wind is still as strong as ever, and being a beach guy since forever, he would know that the wind is not that kind of normal, strong wind, it's an indication of storm. He sighed, exposed his body to the air, a thin swimsuit covers his bottom half.

"Idiot."

He mumbled against himself, and threw himself to the water. He thought that the water is tame against him, and the storm would not take any effect to him.

Except that he's not Rei, which calculations is linear and usually ended up being true.

The storm raged against him, just like a mother which just found his kid after the kid was lost. The water just doesn't want to let go of him. After struggling to swim, he admitted defeat, and he whispers his last coherent word.

"Rin."

Just like that, he went home to the Gods of water, after effectively sent his unrequited message. Too bad, he didn't send it to the intended recipient, which is Rin.

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**Narita, May 2013.**

The changing minutes marked the start of May. Twelve AM, the first of May. A long Qantas flight from Sydney has finally ended, and all of the passengers are home safely, a tall and red-haired guy with shark-shaped teeth included. After finishing his fiscal and luggage works, he smiled in the gate of Narita.

"I'm home, Haru-chan," he mumbled.

Too bad, he was too fixated in thinking of his raven-haired ex-teammate instead of paying any attention to a big television on top of his head.

"A big storm in Iwatobi happened in the midnight of April 29th. The SAR team has successfully evacuated a dead victim, a man without identity who wore a swimming trunk..."


End file.
